SHOPPING in Burnley will wither away unless the town meets the challenges of competition from other towns, council leader Kath Reade told planning chiefs.

She delivered her warning as councillors gave the go-ahead to a £12.5 million centre development which will bring new stores and car parking to the town - and decided to press ahead with highly controversial plans to demolish the 19th century St James' spire which stands in the way of the scheme.

Mrs Reade defended the move to seek special permission to clear the Grade II listed building, despite fierce opposition from 500 petitioners and many environmental and historical groups.

She told the planning committee: "We have to safeguard the future of the town, not just the history.

"If we do not get Burnley up and running and competitive with other towns, it is going to wither away."

She denied the council was guilty of municipal vandalism.

"I have every sympathy with those who want to protect the spire but the scheme is the best we can obtain to meet the challenges we have to meet." And planning chairman John Greenwood warned: "The choice is simple - you either accept this scheme as it is or kiss the whole development goodbye."

Councillors heard the Curzon Street project put forward by town centre owners Great Portland Estates would replace the crumbling Market car stack and provide more than 80,000 sq ft of new shopping space in the centre.

The spire demolition application will go to the Secretary of State for the Environment for consent to demolish, but the weight of opposition is likely to trigger a public inquiry which will hold up development for months.

The Peace Garden, adjoining the spire, will find a new home across the town opposite the Thompson Centre - but 16 different species of trees on the site face the chop. Experts will be called in to carry out a survey of the bats which live in the steeple and come forward with ideas on how best to re-house them.

The save-the-spire cause was championed in the council chamber by Liberal Democrat leader, Gordon Birtwistle, who said the council was replacing a major part of the town's history with a "concrete carbuncle on the face of Burnley."

He appealed to planners to think again and try to incorporate the spire into the development.

And he noted the organisations which supported demolition all had a profit motive, while those who wanted to protect the spire were groups and individuals who cared about the town.

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